NEWS came out that the House of Representatives have suspended the deliberation on the proposed P3.757-trillion cash-based budget for 2019.
Malacañang has expressed alarm over this suspension with Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. saying the palace was “puzzled,” “shocked,” and “curious” over the incident.
“I realize these are very harsh words. But these harsh words (are) intended to deliver the message that we are completely shocked at the resistance of the House because we were confident that when there was a change of leadership, we will still deal with very close allies,” he said.
Davao City Representative Karlos Nograles, chair of the House appropriations committee, announced Saturday, August 11, that the hearings on the proposed 2019 budget would be suspended until further notice “consistent with the position of the House to oppose cash-based budgeting.”
Nograles said the House would give the Development Budget Coordination Committee, which proposed the 2019 budget, to make the “necessary changes” and come up with a “people's budget.”
It is not only Malacañang who is puzzled about this but also us, the citizens of the country, the people who must benefit from the budget.
We do not know what is going on in the lower house but to many of us Filipinos, this is sort of alarming especially when there are no proper explanations from the lawmakers on the suspension.
What we are getting from them are only mother statements. At present, it remains unclear what these “necessary changes” are or what they mean when they say that the budget must be “consistent with the position of the House to oppose cash-based budgeting.”
For a long time, we have been calling for transparency from the government. While the executive branch has made efforts to be more transparent, though they still have a long way to go, it seems like the legislative branch is lacking on this area.
One of the things that we want to see from our government is transparency. However, we are not seeing this with the recent incident at the house.
We have a lot of questions like what the exact reason is behind the suspension. What changes they want made? Is there a conflict between the lower house and the executive branch? We need answers, now.
We just hope that the budget will truly benefit the Filipinos and not the pockets of the politicians.